Tuesday, September 15, 2009

How kind (desperate?) of Dalton McGuinty to share the parentage of his pathetic HST tax with anyone in sight. Too bad he didn't have the courtesy to try this concept out on voters before hoisting it on them.....in perpetuity.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says he has the support of federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff to pass the Harmonized Sales Tax in the event the Grits win an election.

McGuinty broke the news to reporters at Queen's Park on Tuesday. A spokesperson for his office said that there have been several conversations with the federal opposition leader about his support for the HST plan and that his support has indeed been confirmed.

The Conservative government has already promised McGuinty it would provide the province with $4.3 billion to help give Ontarians $15 billion worth of tax cuts to make up for the increase in costs the HST would impose.

Provincial Finance Minister Dwight Duncan confirmed to reporters after Question Period that Ignatieff has also promised to match the Conservatives' financial contribution if the Liberals win the next federal election.

"I remind you we have a signed agreement with the feds and I would expect that governments would live up to signed undertakings by other governments," he said.

A call to Ignatieff's office went unanswered.

Ignatieff has said he has some concerns about merging the 8 per cent provincial tax with the 5 per cent goods and services tax.

Ignatieff, who has vowed to bring down the Conservative government by forcing a fall federal election, said he'd like to see more items exempted from the HST to help struggling Ontarians.

Critics have slammed McGuinty for the Liberal tax reform plan. Though merging the taxes will help businesses prosper, it will also raise the cost of daily items such as coffee and gasoline.

"How can the premier possibly argue that harmonizing the HST is good for ordinary Ontarians when it makes life more expensive," asked NDP MPP Michael Prue in legislature Tuesday.

McGuinty retorted that there is an "overwhelming consensus" among business leaders and economists that the plan is "the right thing to do" for Ontario.

He reminded the House that the HST has been supported by poverty groups and food banks.

Accountability

Meanwhile, Tim Hudak, the leader of Ontario's Progressive Conservative party, took a shot at the Liberal government's handling of a spending scandal at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.

Yesterday, McGuinty outlined a set of new measures aimed at improving accountability after it was revealed that executives at the OLG filed questionable expenses.

Two weeks ago, the premier announced that the province's integrity commissioner must now approve any expense claims filed by Ontario agencies.

Hudak sent out a news release Tuesday questioning how a staff of nine people at the integrity commissioner's office could review expense reports of 80,000 public servants.

Hudak asked McGuinty to reveal details of his accountability plan. He said his staff had called the commissioner's office for details but they were told that officials are "waiting for direction" from the Premier's office.

2 comments:

PS---I guess I should have mentioned that it was supported by the Federal Liberal Party as well.

Just Another Tax Grab

Ontario is about to embark on one of the largest tax grabs in the province`s history yet there has been to this point very little reaction from the public .

The implementation of the new Harmonized Sales tax or the HST will begin next summer as the GST & the PST on various items will be combined in order to make it cheaper & easier for business to conduct a more efficient operation. This should in turn produce a corresponding price decrease on these same items by the supplier. For those of us living in the real world we will not hold our breath as we have been the victim of this shell game before.

We must also realize that many items at present are only subject to a GST tax & the addition of the PST will do nothing more than result in an added expense for the consumer equal to the 8% PST. These items include such things as gasoline , home heating fuels , water , electricity , renovation & labor costs , home repairs , Accountant & Lawyer`s fees to just name a few.

The very fact that our provincial government will be sending us checks for $1000 per household to offset the added costs to us should make us bristle as we are about to be bribed with our own tax dollars.

It is time we woke-up & smelled the coffee as we are about to be taken for the tax ride of a lifetime.

Remember one thing , this tax is being promoted by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty of the Federal Conservative Party of Canada, & it is being implemented by the Liberal Party of Ontario. That fact alone should be enough to make us wonder as these are strange bedfellows indeed.

EVENTS

Income Trust Halloween VigilThanks to all who participated in both the Ottawa and Calgary vigils to mark the anniversary of the announcement.

WE"D LIKE SOME ANSWERS

As you well know, the ‘income trust thing’ has grown beyond the
question of whether fair taxes are paid on income from trusts. It’s
become a giant dirty snowball, and as it rolls forward it accumulates
more and more bulk. There are so many unanswered questions. Let's list a few and invite our "Accountable" government and our free press to provide some much-needed answers.

It is said “Trusts are inefficient use of capital. Why?” Two
related questions are ‘Whose money is it, anyway?’, and ‘Do Canadian
investors have a free and efficient market?’

How can information that is already in the public domain at SEDAR
make for a state secret? How could such information be used to harm
the Canadian national interest? And who would cause the harm?

Why won’t the Canadian media investigate the falsehoods and
misrepresentations told by the Minister of Finance to a committee of
Parliament? Was the Minister in contempt of Parliament?

Why won’t the Canadian media report (a) government tax revenues
gained from BCE in 2006 when BCE was a corporation to (b) government
tax revenues that would be gained in 2007 from BCE, if BCE had been
allowed to proceed to a trust, and (c) government tax revenues that
will be gained in 2007 from BCE, when BCE ownership has been carved
up as 45% foreign ownership and 55% large Canadian pension fund
ownership?